Light Moves Architecture

[... Munich's Hypo high-rise, with its aluminum facade shimmering in the evening light, has been a north-east landmark along the Isar River since 1981. And at 115 meters in height, it is also architecturally outstanding. Unlike the original landmark contruction, the new extension - which has been in use since October of 1998 for 900 employees of the HypoVereinsbank administration - is not a high-rise. The ground plan is similar to that of an amphitheatre-like a stacked-up large "L" with a maximum six floors. The archtects Walther and Bea Betz, together with Eberhard Mehner, added to the high-rise a glass extension with an aluminum facade which is constantly in motion, internally as well as externally.
If you drive down the Denninger Strasse on a cloudy day you can see how the traffic and pedestrians are mirrored on the six floors high glass surface. Reflected clouds move across the glass. Heaven and sunlight glides radiantly across the surface like a constellation of stars. The secret: a grid of square, greenish panes of glass moving automatically like the bat of an eye according to the sun's radiation...
...It's a good thing that Walther and Bea Betz' son Oliver completed his degree at the Munich Film School during his architectural studies. His film, which portrays his parents' construction in all of its greatness, accompanies the exhibit in the Munich Architectural Gallery. ...]
Translated from BR Cultural Review

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